Unique Ability 2.0 with Julia Waller

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Julie Waller, who has been a strategic coach since 1997. She is passionate about the Unique Ability discovery and works with hundreds of entrepreneurs and team members in one-on-one sessions, helping them identify and create a life around their unique ability. During the show, we discuss top 5 strengths, discovering your unique abilities, the four characteristics, and the naming and activity paths.   Main Questions Asked: What is Unique Ability? Do people use Unique Ability in their personal life, work life, or both? What are the four characteristics? What are the naming and activity paths?   Key Lessons Learned: Jessica’s Top 5 1. Communication 2. Futuristic 3. Achiever 4. Activator 5. Maximizer   Unique Ability This is what you are naturally good at and passionate about. Your Unique Ability shows up in the activities you do every day. When you look at your activities, you can assess where the underlying talents are. Your Unique Abilities are who you are when at your best. Self discovery helps you find the type of work that you do best. It often helps looking at your Unique Ability through your business lens before your personal lens.    The Four Characteristics 1. Superior Skill When you do an activity in your work or life, assess if you are really good at it. Ask yourself and others what your skill level is. Superior skills are things that you are naturally good at, and are not necessarily learned. 2. Passion This is something you are driven and motivated by and want to do more. 3. Energy Your Unique Ability gives other people energy when you are doing it. 4. Never Ending Improvement This is when you are already good at something and you want to keep getting better.   The Activities Path List all the activities you do every day starting with what you do for work. Once the activities are listed, ask if each activity meets the four criteria.   Excellent Activities: You don’t have passion for these activities, but still have a superior skill.   Competent Activities: You can do this, but are average at it and a lot of people could do it better than you.   Incompetent Activities: You aren’t good, and experience failure. Once you have broken your activities into categories, delegate a percentage to each. Figure out how to free yourself up from the energy draining activities. Exponential results will come from focusing on the stuff you are really good at.   Jessica’s Personal Case Study Create your activity inventory. Put each of your tasks into the four categories.   Jessica’s Primary Tasks Bookkeeping. Checking emails. Checking Slack. Client calls. Podcast. Proofing the blog. Training calls. Guest booking. Get coaching. Producing weekly videos.   Coaching Tips Tell the truth about your skill level. If others would agree, you have a superior skill. Check your passion level and mark it as your Unique Ability or excellent. Keep your feelings about the activities separate, and focus on the skill level.   Jessica’s Unique Ability Cold calls. Podcasting. Client training.   Jessica’s Excellent Activities Slack. Pitching and booking interviews. Video marketing.   Competent Activities Emails. Blog, editing, and posting.   Incompetent Activities Bookkeeping.    Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio! The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic    Links to Resources Mentioned Unique Ability Strategic Coach